Reg Cross Functional Team and cross functional team members in Scrum
The Development Team in Scrum has to be a cross-functional team. Does it not mean that all the individual Development Team members HAVE to be cross-functional?
A team is only as capable as it's members.
I came across an explanation which said the team has to be cross functional and not the team members. Which I think is wrong.
Would like to hear your thoughts...
From the Scrum Guide:
Scrum Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional. Self-organizing teams choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team. Cross-functional teams have all competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others not part of the team.
The team is the thing that is cross-functional. That is, when considering all members of the team, all of the knowledge and skills needed to do the work exist within at least one team member.
However, if you have work that can only be done by one person on a team, you'll likely run into bottlenecks in the flow of work. Training individuals to also be cross-functional can improve the ability of the team to deliver value.
The Development Team in Scrum has to be a cross-functional team. Does it not mean that all the individual Development Team members HAVE to be cross-functional?
No, because that would imply team members are incapable of collaboration and cannot manage their dependencies. Even with extensive skill-silos, they might be able to do it.
Since dependencies are best minimized and can make planning easier, having cross-skilled team members is typically advantageous. Even then however, not every skill necessarily has to be duplicated in each team member. Attempting to train everyone up to such a standard could be wasteful.